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Clémence Poésy

Clémence Poésy has built a career that moves easily between French and English-language projects, period drama and contemporary thrillers, film, television and the stage. Born Clémence Guichard on 30 October 1982 in L'Haÿ-les-Roses, outside Paris, she later adopted her mother’s maiden name professionally. Theatre was part of her upbringing: her father, Étienne Guichard, was a theatre director, actor and playwright, while family trips to cinemas and theatres encouraged an early interest in performance. Poésy studied drama at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique, the Atelier International de Blanche Salant et Paul Weaver and Paris Nanterre University. Her first English-speaking role came as Mary, Queen of Scots in the 2004 BBC miniseries Gunpowder, Treason & Plot, a performance that won her the 2005 Golden FIPA for actress in a TV Series and Serial. A wider international audience met her as Fleur Delacour in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. She returned to the role for the final two Harry Potter films, but her work beyond the franchise shows the breadth of her choices. She appeared in Martin McDonagh’s black comedy crime thriller In Bruges, Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours and Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, while taking leading or substantial roles in Birdsong, Mr. Morgan’s Last Love, The Ones Below and Final Portrait. Television has given Poésy room to sustain characters over longer stories. She led the French-British crime drama The Tunnel as Elise Wassermann across three seasons, and later appeared in The Essex Serpent, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and Sambre – Anatomy of a Crime. Her stage work includes Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway, Yelena in Uncle Vanya in Bath and Je Danse Toujours in Paris, directed by her father. That range is central to Poésy’s appeal: she can belong to a large-scale international production without losing the precision associated with intimate drama. Alongside acting, she has also worked extensively as a model and is associated professionally with film directing.